I don't know why I liked Dev - but he was my only hero

For a complete list of Dev Anand songs click  here at In.com I’ve never seen Dev Anand even from a distance. Now, I never will. For a long-term fan, I haven’t even seen all his films – now I have all the time in the world to do so. I don’t know why I am attempting to write my own feelings about him. I don’t know why I liked him – but I did. Hence this personal piece. Reading all the obits and tweets of people who really knew him, the sense I get about Dev saab is his zest and passion for life - and complete involvement in whatever he was excited about at any point in his life. This is probably what made him my favourite childhood hero. He had already been 10 years into films when I was born, and my parents were regular movie-goers in my early years. I remember putting up with this like a monthly chore – imagine a child of four or five sitting in a dark hall, unable to understand anything. [caption id=“attachment_148248” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Dev may not have been the greatest actor of his time, but that didn’t matter to his fans. Image courtesy CNN IBN”]  [/caption] The only good thing about movie-going in the early sixties was the pop-corn break. But Dev Anand was someone I took an instant liking to – even if I didn’t understand his movies. My mother had to tell me the story after it was all over. In the hall, my father would regularly shushhh me with a dirty look if I asked what was going on. It was around the mid-1960s that I really became a fan. I have probably seen nine or 10 of his movies, but the ones I liked best were Guide, Hum Dono, Asli Naqli, Prem Pujari, Jewel Thief, Hare Rama Kare Krishna, Kala Bazaar and Tere Mere Sapne. In an age dominated by all-time great actors like Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt and many others, Dev Anand could hardly have been called a great actor. He wasn’t even top class in terms of delivering a dialogue, or capable of emoting very well. But that didn’t matter to me or his other fans. There was something in him that appealed - and I think that something was his boyish innocence. His trade-mark style of walking (we were told then that one leg of his was shorter than the other) and his rakish hair style were unforgettable. I tried doing that to my hair and failed miserably. I still try fluffing up my hair when no one is looking – but it still does not measure up. Dev was Dev. And his outfits. The colour combos and styles look outlandish now, but we didn’t think so in the 1960s and 1970s. In Jewel Thief, when he tried out a distinctive new cap, it became all the rage – I even got one for myself and looked at myself in the mirror several times to see if I would look like him. Fat chance. It was him, not the cap, I liked. In Guide, the tears flowed endlessly when I saw it the second time and saw him dying. In Hum Dono, where he played a double role, I didn’t quite like him with the moustache, and hoped he would go away. I preferred the one without the facial shrubbery. But what songs the movie had: Allah tero naam, Eswar tero naam, Kabhi khudpe kabhi halaat pe…. Every one of them was unforgettable. The songs were simply fantastic. Consider Prem Pujari ( Phoolon ke rang se), or Guide (T ere mere sapne), or Asli Naqli ( Tera mera pyar amar, Tujhe jeewan ki dor se), or Kala Bazaar ( Khoya khoya chand). Or Jab pyar kisise hota hai ( Jiya O, Jiya O kuch bol do). Or Solva Saal ( Hai apna dil to awara). More than anything else, I would say that Dev Anand always worked for me because of the beautiful songs his films invariably had – with SD Burman doing some of the best scores for him. But the songs everyone mentions are the ones in Hum Dono, scored by Jaidev. His Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya, and Abhi na jao chodke have become so iconic for their attitudinal and romantic expression that almost everyone associates them with Dev saab. I think for Dev Anand life was one sweet song – and that was something that always appealed to the romantic in me. (Disclaimer: Firstpost has provided some links to Youtube songs of Dev Anand but does not vouch for the copyrights).